Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - March/April 2010 - (Page 38)

exploring career options Epidemiologist Mark Parascandola, Ph.D., MPH Epidemiologist, Tobacco Control Research Branch, National Cancer Institute Interview by Melissa Hartman Cancer prevention covers a wide range of research and requires knowledge from a variety of disciplines. I focused on tobacco because I think so many of the questions that I find interesting about philosophy of science, particularly the challenges of translating scientific evidence into public health policy, are very relevant to this area. stiRLiNG eLMeNDoRF Mark Parascandola earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Cambridge University. Then, while completing post-doctoral fellowships at the National Institutes of Health, he earned his Master’s of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Now, as an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, he continues to pursue his interests at the intersection of science and philosophy through research on tobacco control policy, ethical issues in public health, and epidemiologic methods. How does someone with a Ph.D. in philosophy end up as an epidemiologist? I’ve had an interest in both science and philosophy for a long time. As an undergraduate, I was interested in philosophy of science. Working on my Ph.D., I focused on the science of epidemiology; in particular, I was looking at how patterns of disease were used to inform public policy. After finishing my Ph.D., I wanted practical experience working in a public health environment, so I did a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. That put me on the path to where I am now. Your dissertation focused in part on something called “causal inference.” Is that related to what you’re doing now? Yes. Here’s an example, a classic case in the history of epidemiology: How do we reach a conclusion about whether smoking causes lung cancer? We know now, of course, that smoking causes lung cancer and a range of other diseases. But when the first studies were done in the 1950s, there was a lot of debate over what kind of scientific information was needed to finally conclude that smoking actually causes lung cancer. One of the alternative hypotheses was that maybe smokers are somehow constitutionally different, which makes them more prone to lung cancer. Maybe smokers tend to be nervous people who have more anxiety, for example, and who perhaps are also more prone to other types of diseases. One of the fundamental questions in philosophy of science is, when you see an association between some activity and a disease, how do you determine if it’s actually a cause-andeffect relationship? Even though we know a lot now about what the effects of tobacco are, we’re still trying to figure out the best policies to put into place to reduce tobacco use. We have found some things that we know are helpful. For example, we know that if Was your post-doc at NIH in the same area you’re working now? I actually had two fellowships. The first was in bioethics, which is one field where philosophers commonly find a niche in a medical research setting. One of the projects I was working on was looking at how we deal with uncertainty in the clinic setting. Sometimes we don’t have all the information we’d like on novel drugs and other therapies: Are they equally effective in all patients, for example, or are there certain treatments that will be more effective in some patients than in others? And sometimes there are differences of opinion among experts regarding which therapy is best in a particular situation. That’s partly a scientific question, in that we use science to try to answer these questions. But there are also ethical questions. How do you communicate the uncertainty to the patient? How do you ensure that the patient understands not only what science can tell us, but also what we don’t know, so they can play an active role in making decisions about their healthcare? So how did you end up at the Tobacco Control Research Branch in particular? My other post-doc fellowship was designed for people who want to work in cancer prevention and also want a more comprehensive public health education. 38 imagine Mar/Apr 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - March/April 2010

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - March/April 2010
Contents
Editor’s Note
Big Questions
In My Own Words
Why Study Philosophy?
The Great Conversation
Robots, Zombies, and Descartes
The Wide World of Philosophy
The Philosopher’s Toolbox
Bad Dreams, Evil Demons, and The Experience Machine
Harry Potter and Plato
Exploring Ethics (or, Why I Give Up Saturdays in Spring)
How to Start a Philosophy Club
Selected Opportunities & Resources
Middle Ground
Off the Shelf
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options
One Step Ahead
Planning Ahead for College
Students Review
Creative Minds Imagine
Sudoku
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - March/April 2010